Not sure how much we still need this thread, but as I always say, it's better to have one drink too many, than to go thirsty.

So I'm assuming this tread will mostly be about the recent election of Donald Trump, whose election shocked the world, because, to put it frank, the world didn't care to listen to actual Americans that didn't live in cities, but in stead was quite content to reguritate the same mantra of how Trump could never win, as postulated by a lot of people who didn't actually live in the USA themselves.

I think that I myself have been quite outspoken about not being all too happy with his win, because I do not aprove of his style (or lack there of), nor of what little he has already said about where he wants to take the US. Perhaps I have been more outspoken due to the fact that I do not live in the US myself, and can only get first hand information about how the US feels about his election through this forum, while you 'mericans probably talk about it all day to everyone and anyone.

Punk Rebel Ecks linked us to an article he wrote about the outcome: I wrote an article about why Trump won. which I found to be an interesting read. He states that Trump didn't win because the unwashed angry white masses TM showed up in great numbers, but because Democratic voters stayed home by the hundreds of thousands. Which puts the blame squarely in the Clinton Camp, although I feel this is also partially the responsibility of the media. Why should I go and vote, when Clinton is clearly ahead and winning withouth my one puny little vote? I guess this is what you get from a voting system in which voting isn't compulsory.

There was also some article in a local newspaper here stating that this was the end of the American Dream, which means you can achieve anything if you be your best self, or something down that line. Because really, a rich white guy with the worst track record of any presidential aspirant, won from Hilary Clinton, who must have been one of the best prepared people for US presidency to have ever graced the planet. Then again, having the first female president directly after the first black president may have proven a bit too much to some voters as well.

As for what this now means for the US and the world at large, we'll have to see. But I find it a bit scary that we know near to nothing about what direction he wants to take the country in, while also having a majority in the parlement and the chamber (possibly not the right terms, I'm playing the 'I'm just a silly European guy' card). So far he seems to have been appointing people who are commited to oil and some who even don't believe in global warming. If the USA don't commit to battling climate change, I don't see the world making any strides in this field for the next 4 years. Same goes for the economical topics. If the US really steer a protectionist course, the whole world will fold back onto itself and all that will be achieved is that everything gets more expensive for everyone. As I said when the Brexit was announced, people love to diss foreigners for 'taking their jobs', especially in consstruction, but you watch how people will love paying higher prices for their bathroom refurbishment once all those cheap plumbers have left the country.

So yeah, not much of a coherent post, but I figured a thread on the topic might be required.

You guys should have seen the protests in New York. So weird being there on the ground during the aftermath of this thing.

Electoral college sounds broken. Clinton got more votes. But we in the UK have the constituancy system. We need proportional representation but no party in power wants to push it through. Aside from the lib dems.

Times Square had a media kiosk in front of the police stand there. It was walled off. Crowds gathered before the election result was announced. A few people tried to start a clap/chant there, with no result. Other fun things that happened in the area - a guy called us f**king vermin and f**king scum and spat at us. A cop casually walked by and said I was wearing a really cool jacket and he dug it. A random dude tried to score a cigarette from us.

Day after that cops blocked off the roads opposite Macys in a cross formation, lined up cars and threatened to arrest anyone who didn't move on. Which was weird because there was no problem until they showed up. We had to find an alternative route back to the hotel.

We passed by Trump Tower several times, randomly. The cops had placed large trucks loaded with sand to deter truck bombs. The press had an area on the opposite sidewalk, gated off but we didn't see any live reporting. Just a few newsies hanging out with equipment. The next time we passed there were a gaggle of protesters chanting and the Naked Cowboy was there.

Rockerfeller Plaza had the result plastered on the wall and the ice rink below had been daubed up called Democracy Plaza.

Not our president - large groups moving down 5th ave, marching up and down night after night.

In San Franciso smaller groups moving down Market street, marching up and down night after night. Cops shadowed them, walking either side of them in a line, ominously and fairly pointlessly given the size of the group and peaceful nature.

Then during the day there was a March about the Dakota pipeline, much larger.

Of course we watched CNN and Fox News in the hotel and it was interesting how they tried to rationalise the result. What was most interesting was how the media outlets tried to normalise Trump and his views. One commentator said it was the "new normal". Then they showed little kids my nephews age chanting "build the wall" in school in the faces of their latino schoolmates. Then a few white kids in high school walking around with a Trump poster and chanting "White Power". They also showed racist election related graffiti.

For the record all of this was just done for your benefit. No one in the country actually cares about the election one way or the other. We just do stuff like that to get reactions from foreign tourists.

I cannot comment on any of this, because I follow this so closely. Anytime I hear casuals (that is people who don'tt read or listen to primary documents on the subject for 12-18 hours a week) discuss US politics it's like listening to non-gamers talk about gaming. Any of you could hold an intelligent and informed discussion on the merits of the N64 vs Dreamcast vs Wii and Wii U and what that means for the Switch. That's me on political science.

If you are relying on corporate media for information on politics it is like relying on CNN and TIME magazine for their GOTY coverage.

I cannot comment on any of this, because I follow this so closely. Anytime I hear casuals (that is people who don'tt read or listen to primary documents on the subject for 12-18 hours a week) discuss US politics it's like listening to non-gamers talk about gaming. Any of you could hold an intelligent and informed discussion on the merits of the N64 vs Dreamcast vs Wii and Wii U and what that means for the Switch. That's me on political science.

If you are relying on corporate media for information on politics it is like relying on CNN and TIME magazine for their GOTY coverage.

All you need is C-SPAN.

I would love to hear more of your in-depth views on the matter. I have a very broad span of interest, but too short of a span of attention to actually delve deep into things myself. I probably couldn't even hold a well informed discussion on the merits of the N64 vs Dreamcast vs Wii and WiiU. That being said, the GC clearly wins.

I cannot comment on any of this, because I follow this so closely. Anytime I hear casuals (that is people who don'tt read or listen to primary documents on the subject for 12-18 hours a week) discuss US politics it's like listening to non-gamers talk about gaming. Any of you could hold an intelligent and informed discussion on the merits of the N64 vs Dreamcast vs Wii and Wii U and what that means for the Switch. That's me on political science.

If you are relying on corporate media for information on politics it is like relying on CNN and TIME magazine for their GOTY coverage.

All you need is C-SPAN.

You cannot comment on it, because you are not ignorant enough to. At the very least this demonstrates conformity to media and popular discourse, if not indeed knowledge of political "science" as claimed.

Today is the first time Trump said something I agree with, the way he spoke about Castros death. That said I bet he will undo all the work Obama has done to open relations with them which will solve nothing.

I don't know if anyone saw, but the Canadian Prime Minister kind of stepped in it while paying tribute to Castro on his Twitter. Apparently his father and Castro were close. He said some very glowing things about him, and neglected those little death squad things.

You guys should have seen the protests in New York. So weird being there on the ground during the aftermath of this thing.

Electoral college sounds broken. Clinton got more votes. But we in the UK have the constituancy system. We need proportional representation but no party in power wants to push it through. Aside from the lib dems.

People constantly misunderstand the electoral college. It certainly isn't perfect, but there are problems with just having the popular vote decide the winner as well (rural cities being ignored compared to big cities). The real issue is the winner-take-all election of the President and party instead of electing local representatives of whichever party you support.

I've watched American politics out of morbid curiosity for 15+ years, like a train wreck you just can't look away from. More than anything, this election was a referendum on establishment politics. People hate Washington so much, that a billionaire who literally sits on a golden throne has been able to present himself as the outsider man-of-the-people. Anybody who looks at Trump and is suddenly appalled has been conveniently ignorant of the Republican party for the past decade -- he's nothing new in terms of policy. Which is also unfortunate because that means there's definitely not going to be the change desperately needed. The best hope there is that this loss causes the Democratic party to seriously re-evaluate its priorities.

I studied British and American politics. We covered previous US elections quite a bit and the electoral college system. It was many years ago though.

Like I said, here we have constituancies, so whomever in each area wins gets an MP for that party. The party with the biggest majority of MPs forms the government and the party leader is the person previously elected by either party members or sitting MPs. So rather than have separate elections for leaders, essentially whichever party wins most seats, gets the Prime minister too.

The Lords is unelected and mainly balances and amends legislation from the house of Commons.

I imagine the electoral college system does better represent rural areas, but it does show the disparity when some areas have a lot more people and their votes are essentially disregarded. Here we have an Electoral Commission that re-draws election boundaries every few years to make sure that there is a similar number of voters per area. Although there have been arguments about it lately as one party things re-drawing them will affect them badly.

I cannot comment on any of this, because I follow this so closely. Anytime I hear casuals (that is people who don'tt read or listen to primary documents on the subject for 12-18 hours a week) discuss US politics it's like listening to non-gamers talk about gaming. Any of you could hold an intelligent and informed discussion on the merits of the N64 vs Dreamcast vs Wii and Wii U and what that means for the Switch. That's me on political science.

If you are relying on corporate media for information on politics it is like relying on CNN and TIME magazine for their GOTY coverage.

All you need is C-SPAN.

I would love to hear more of your in-depth views on the matter. I have a very broad span of interest, but too short of a span of attention to actually delve deep into things myself. I probably couldn't even hold a well informed discussion on the merits of the N64 vs Dreamcast vs Wii and WiiU. That being said, the GC clearly wins.

Congressional Dish podcast is probably advanced listening, but to understand US politics all you need to do is listen to the Press Secretary's address to the media podcast, the Secretary of State's press secretary address to the media and the same for the Pentagon. In addition to that listen to the Washington Journal from C-SPAN to listen to real US citizens call in and comment on the days events in a neutral setting (all available on C-Span).

So, what do you guys think about the bombing of a Syrian military airport by the US?

I just heard about it on the radio, it just sounds very rash to me. You'd expect some kind of commission to determine if it was indeed Asad, after which there'd be some huffing and puffing and a warning or something. Now it just seems like the US said 'Fuck you Asad, we don't believe you and we're going to just blow up something because you've been a bad boy and because we can'.